Great Expectations, Structural Limitations: Ursula von der Leyen and the Commission's New Equality Agenda

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of common market studies Vol. 58; no. S1; pp. 121 - 132
Main Authors Abels, Gabriele, Mushaben, Joyce M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken, NJ Wiley 01.09.2020
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects
Equality
Expectations
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Bibliography:We pursue two arguments that, taken together, pose a ‘glass half‐full, glass half empty’ conundrum. First, we contend that a leader's past performance is the best predictor we have when it comes to anticipating her future behaviour. Like her former boss, Chancellor Angela Merkel, von der Leyen entered German politics through the ‘side door’ in 1990 but quickly rose to national prominence. She is the only politician to have served in all four Merkel cabinets (2005–19), prior to her surprise nomination for Commission Presidency. Despite her refusal to label herself a feminist, von der Leyen generated a long list of gender policy achievements as Germany's Minister for Women and Family (2005–09), as Labour Minister (2009–13) and as its first female Defence Minister (2013–19), respectively. Her pro‐active support for work–life balance policies, paternal leave, corporate board quotas and female mentoring in the
2019b
Bundeswehr
armed forces) met with strong resistance within her own party, but these initiatives ultimately became the law of the land (Mushaben
.
ISSN:1468-5965
0021-9886
1468-5965
DOI:10.1111/jcms.13102